Vampire-like sea lampreys, a parasitic eel-like fish that feeds on the blood of its victims, have been a lethal threat to Great Lakes fish for decades.
The story of their destruction is featured in a new documentary being released in the United States and Canada on Friday.
The Fish Thief: A Great Lakes Mystery will be available to stream, download, or rent on multiple platforms, including Apple TV, iTunes, Amazon, Google, YouTube, and Tubi.
The film is narrated by Oscar-winning actor J.K. Simmons, who was born in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe, Mich. Mr. Simmons and his family moved to the Columbus area when he was 10.
The 2024 documentary has been shown at several film festivals, where it has received multiple awards.
Natives of the Atlantic Ocean, sea lampreys have been a lethal menace to Great Lakes fish since they were first seen in Lake Ontario in 1835.
When improvements were made to the Welland Canal in the late 1800s and early 1900s to help ships get around Niagara Falls, the lampreys had an easy pathway into the other four Great Lakes. They were first seen in Lake Erie in 1921, in Lakes Michigan and Huron by 1936 and 1937, and Lake Superior by 1938, the commission states.
The Great Lakes fishery, now valued at $7 billion, took a huge hit from them before a chemical treatment was developed in the late 1950s to suppress their population.
Though they look like an eel, sea lampreys are ancient fish that have remained largely unchanged for more than 340 million years and have survived through at least four major extinction events.
According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, sea lampreys kill other fish by using their suction-disk mouths filled with small sharp, rasping teeth and a file-like tongue.
“These mouthparts are used by the sea lamprey to attach to a fish, puncture its skin, and drain its body fluids,” according to the state agency’s website. “Adults typically range from one foot to two and a half feet in length.”
The Fish Thief documents how sea lampreys upended the commercial fishing industry of yesteryear, ruining countless jobs and businesses as fish populations plummeted.
The destruction led to a cry for help from the U.S. and Canadian governments, ultimately resulting in the creation of the Ann Arbor-based Great Lakes Fishery Commission in 1954. The commission has since expanded its focus to include all nonnative species in the five Great Lakes while also setting annual catch limits for fishermen.
“As the Commission celebrates its 70th anniversary, we are proud to release The Fish Thief,” Ethan Baker, Great Lakes Fishery Commission chairman, said in a news release.
Today, it’s hard to grasp just how destructive sea lampreys became, nearly wiping out populations of lake trout, whitefish, salmon, and other species.
Sea lampreys quickly grew in numbers and proved they were highly efficient killers.
Greg McClinchey, Great Lakes Fishery Commission legislative affairs and policy director, told The Blade that the film “is our effort of trying to learn from some of the lived experiences.”
The documentary got financial and technical support from the commission.
The film is a follow-up to a 2019 book, Great Lakes Sea Lamprey: The 70 Year War on a Biological Invader, written by Cory Brant, a former post-doctoral researcher at the University of Michigan and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
“The film was the next step,” Mr. McClinchey said. “It brings together interviews from people in the early days. It tells the story from the historical perspective, but also as a cautionary tale.”
Sea lampreys are one of more than 180 aquatic non-native species in the Great Lakes. Many did not establish populations or are barely noticeable in the ecosystem, according to the fishery commission.
“All upset the balance to some extent,” Mr. McClinchey said.
Lindsey Haskin, The Fish Thief director, writer, and producer, said in a telephone interview from his home near San Diego that his goal was to make the documentary resonate the layman.
Mr. Haskin, a Michigan native, said he intentionally made it less technical and more historical than Mr. Brant’s book.
“The film is directed more toward a general audience,” he said.
Mr. McClinchey agreed that’s a good strategy.
“The way to stop these invaders is to engage the public,” he said.
Mr. Haskin said he focused on getting anecdotes from people who lived through the greatest sea lamprey destruction.
That occurred before scientists developed a chemical tool, known as a lampricide. That has been used since the late 1950s to kill off as many sea lamprey as possible in spawning streams.
The chemical treatment, targeted at that specific species, has had great success in suppressing — but not eradicating — sea lamprey.
“Elimination of that species is not really an option,” Mr. McClinchey said.
Lamprey numbers started to rebound during the coronavirus pandemic, when treatments were temporarily suspended.
That, Mr. Haskin said, speaks to the need for funding a long-term management strategy.
“It’s really a story about human tenacity and insistence in tackling a problem and not throwing in the towel,” Mr. Haskin said of his film.
He said the Great Lakes Commission asked him to do a documentary focused on sea lamprey after seeing them featured for a few brief moments during the second half of his 2009 documentary for public television, Freshwater Seas: The Great Lakes.
One of his biggest challenges was finding eyewitness from decades ago.
Getting them on film became even harder because of the pandemic. Given their age and their susceptibility to the coronavirus, in-person interviews were suspended for two years during the pandemic, Mr. Haskin said.
Many have died. That includes some eyewitnesses who gave interviews for the film before it was released. Their names are listed in an “In Memoriam” section of the film.
“The main thing it’s an oral history project for the fishery commission,” Mr. Haskin said.
Jennifer Read, director of the University of Michigan’s Water Center, said she’s pleased with the documentary.
“It did everything we wanted it to do,” she said.
The saga of the sea lamprey is “a positive story in that we were able to find a solution that allows us to suppress it,” Ms. Read said.
“The main takeaway is we need to keep that pressure on that species or else it'll return,” she said. “We can’t let our guard down.”
First Published January 26, 2025, 2:00 p.m.
